We seek collaboration to find out what corporations can and should do to preserve biodiversity.

Japan Business Initiative for Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity (JBIB) is a cross-sector organization started with 14 companies in April 2008. Its purpose is essentially to encourage collaboration among member companies in active efforts geared toward biodiversity conservation. In the first year, the number of member companies increased to 24 (as of April 2009). Although often mistaken, JBIB is not an organization created as a preparation measure for the COP10 in 2010*.

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The 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP10) is scheduled for 2010 in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture in Japan's Tokai Region.

Identifies the relationship between corporate activities and biodiversity and uses knowledge in conservation

As a company with more than 10 years of experience in ecosystem conservation, Ricoh has been taking leadership in member activities as well as in the R&D section. In R&D, impacts of business activities on biodiversity are identified, and the " Map of Corporate Activities and Biodiversity " was developed as a tool to be used inside and outside the company to show the relationships between businesses and biodiversity. By reading the map, people can easily understand how the ecosystem and their business activities are related—harvesting agricultural and fishery products for food manufacturing companies, or mining of coal and iron ore for the steel industry, for example, are related.
Now we are moving to the next step to assess the level of impact and develop a tool to start specific activities. As indicated in the Three Ps Balance, Ricoh has been carrying out ecosystem conservation projects in different parts of the world in the belief that Ricoh's businesses depend on the health of the global environment. This is a unique situation not seen in any other corporation. I hope Ricoh will continue assessing the impact of each part of their business activities, such as procurement and water use, to carry out effective activities. I believe they can set a leading example of essential biodiversity conservation activities for other corporations to follow.